Penn State transfer safety Marcus Neal Jr. spoke to the media for the first time as a Nittany Lion and set the record straight.
As head coach Matt Campbell took over the Penn State program in early December, along with him came a lot of his players from Iowa State. The final total was 24 players transferred from Iowa State to Penn State.
While I think that can be positive, I think there is certainly a point where the returns diminish. We will find out soon if Campbell pushed it too far or if he hit it just right.
The good part is that Iowa State was solid last year, and they got as high as ranked No. 15 in the country before they went on a similar losing streak that Penn State did.
There are several new names that Penn State fans will need to get to know. One of those names is safety Marcus Neal Jr.
Neal Jr. comes to State College with two years under his belt. He played as a true freshman in 2024 before taking over and finding his role in 2025. Last season, he finished with 77 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss, three pass breakups, two interceptions, one sack, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery.
Neal Jr. is intimidating physically and is certainly a force to be reckoned with. He stands at 6'2 and a sturdy 215 pounds. That size tracking from the secondary can be a scary sight for a ball carrier.
Two weeks ago, he met with the media for the first time, and the main takeaway was that he believes that he said, "there are not many things that I can't do."
The tape certainly backs it up.
Neal Jr. can tackle anything and loves playing around the line of scrimmage. That looks to be where he is the most comfortable on the defense. His instincts around the line of scrimmage stand out as both a strength and an area that he can continue to improve upon.
One area that he really excelled in last year was his blitzing. There were several times when he triggered on blitzes and was making tackles on running backs in the backfield.
When he is decisive, he has an elite explosion and gets to top speed quickly.
There are a couple of negatives in his tape, and it all revolves around his eyes. Sometimes he tends to guess instead of reading his keys. The positive is that that element is something that can be coached and adjusted with time and growth of the young player.
Neal Jr. truly can do it all, and as he continues to mature and improve, he has all of the tools to become a household name at Penn State.